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bolka-dur and strained to tug him across the floor with his mind.

    All through the dungeon there was chaos. Bolts flew from the witch’s fingertips and flames blasted off the back of the firescale snake. Aldwyn was even nearly gouged by the sharpened tusk of the warthog.
    The familiars were able to escape through the dungeon door, dragging the bolka-dur behind them. The elvin pirate tried to slip through as well, but Gilbert bounced up and kicked him, forcing him to stumble backward. Aldwyn telekinetically slammed the door shut and sent the blockade bar crashing down across it. Leaving the still unconscious bolka-dur resting against the door, the trio continued on their way.
    They had successfully fled the dungeon, but they still had to navigate their way out of the castle and escape the city. The familiars had gone from being Vastia’s most celebrated to its most wanted.
    The Prophesized Three were fugitives.

4
ICARI WEED
    “T his is the way they led us in,” Skylar said, soaring up to the base of a staircase.
    “Then that’s definitely not the way we want to go out,” Aldwyn said. “There must be other passageways, ones that are less traveled.”
    Aldwyn bounded down the hall, passing by the palace vault once more. Multiple corridors split off from the main stretch, each one looking identical.
    “Over here,” Aldwyn said, starting down one of the passages.
    Gilbert came to a halt.
    “Now doesn’t seem like the best time for guessing,” he said.
    “I’m not. I smell fish.”
    Gilbert and Skylar followed him, and sure enough, they came to another set of stairs leading upward. Aldwyn began climbing, with his companions right behind him. They ascended three flights before emerging into the palace kitchen.
    Aldwyn had sneaked through many a cooking quarter in his day, from the tiny ones in the fishmonger shops in Bridgetower to the magically endowed one in Sorceress Edna’s Black Ivy Manor. But never had he been inside a kitchen as enormous as this. Had it been any other day, he would have explored every pantry and ice chest. Now he had to resist even the fillet of salmon cooking over the nearby fire.
    The kitchen staff tended to different pots and pans, while the palace chef barked orders and dipped his finger in a stew for a taste. The familiars tiptoed across the floor and exited into the dining hall, where an informal buffet was being served for those keeping an all-night vigil for the queen. Few of those gathered seemed to have much of an appetite, instead poking worriedly at platefuls of food with their forks.
    Skylar landed on Aldwyn’s back and beckoned Gilbert to join her. Once they were both aboard, Skylar waved a wing and Aldwyn could see in a mirrored wall that the three of them now appeared to be one of the many palace bulldogs that roamed the halls. As they walked through the room, Aldwyn could hear snippets of talk from those gathered around the table.
    “I hear that her heart is beating once every five minutes. And that her fingertips are cold enough to make water freeze.”
    “Few wake from the Wander. Without the right counterspell, she may remain trapped there for eternity.”
    “What’s the alternative? The Tomorrowlife?”
    Aldwyn slowed his pace to hear more.
    “Do you know if those without magic are allowed to join the wizards seeking out that spell?”
    “I’m sure Galatea would welcome any volunteers.”
    “There are already dozens of scholars poring over every text in the queen’s library. But her personal collection is limited. The most ancient spell books were destroyed when the Historical Archives were eaten by those bookworms.”
    “Perhaps that was all part of the familiars’ plan.”
    Those assembled nodded their heads in agreement. How quickly these lies had poisoned their reputation. Aldwyn gnashed his teeth angrily.
    Once he reached the other side of the room, Aldwyn slipped into the hallway. With Skylar maintaining the illusion, Aldwyn started toward the grand